Homily:
Commemoration of our Lord’s Passion
Although it may seem obvious
to many of you, I don’t think that it is a bad idea to take a step back today
and to ask ourselves, “Why do we celebrate the Passion of our Lord?” There is, of course, the obvious reason:
that, as believers, we have an obligation to commemorate this event through
which we have all been redeemed—that is, the event through which our sins find
the possibility of forgiveness. An
obligation so that we “never forget” that it is in and through Jesus Christ and
his self-sacrifice that the possibility of a life beyond the suffering of this
world is made possible for us. Just as,
for us citizens of the United States, we can “never forget” the events of 9/11,
or Pearl Harbor, or the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and thus we
must commemorate them, Christians can “never forget” the events of Good Friday through
our yearly commemoration.
Perhaps a less-obvious reason,
but one particularly poignant this year, is that we often need a reminder that
suffering, embraced and endured for a good end, is never meaningless. This year, through no fault of our own, we
have been ordered to make sacrifices and, thus, to suffer, for the good of
others (and, ultimately, ourselves).
This should give us a sense of solidarity with Christ who, Isaiah
prophesied, would be one who had done no wrong but who nonetheless suffered as
if he was a great sinner. This same one
who, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews testified, learned obedience from
what he suffered and was made perfect, so as to become the source of eternal
salvation. On the surface, Christ’s
suffering appeared meaningless: a cruel abuse perpetuated by authorities who
wrongly convicted him. Christ knew the
good end for which he was suffering, however, and so he could persevere and
even find strength to endure it to the end.
Although it may seem that we are suffering unjustly these days, I pray
that we can see the good end for which we are suffering—saving lives—and thus find
strength in knowing that our suffering has value so as to persevere in it until
the threat of this pandemic ends.
After these two more practical
reasons, there is still another reason why we celebrate the Passion of our
Lord. This is to remind ourselves of the
truth that Jesus proclaimed from the cross: “It is finished.” Here’s what I mean: There is so much anxiety
among the faithful—all of you and myself included—for being separated from the
sacraments. I’m grateful for this
anxiety as it shows a great longing in you to be free of this world and so
untied to God. There’s an anxiety, in
particular, to be able to confess our sins and receive absolution (and, again,
I feel that anxiety with you!). Because
of this, we perhaps feel a particular anxiety and a desire to weep in sorrow
for our sins before the cross: the instrument of torture on which our Savior
suffered precisely because of our sins.
While such a desire is completely appropriate to this day, I don’t think
that this weeping is what we are called to do today (at least, not
exclusively). Rather, I think that we
are called to acknowledge and to celebrate that “It is finished” and, thus, to make
deep acts of faith in the truth that we proclaim during the Stations of the
Cross: that is, that “by his holy cross, he has redeemed the world”. These acts should give us consolation that,
while God has given us the sacraments as our surety of his grace, he,
nonetheless, is not bound by them.
Rather, he is "bound" by the perfect obedience of his Son,
which won redemption for all who, in turn, obey him.
Friends, the Passion of our
Lord is presented to us in narrative form so as to remind us that God worked
out our salvation in the thick of our human messiness, so as to remind us that
it is not by making our lives some idyllic perfection of piety and devotion
that we come to salvation (as good as that would be), but rather that it is by
embracing the cross—that is, taking up our daily sacrifices in the midst of our
daily messes for the good of those around us—that salvation comes to us. Today, in a special way, we unite the
"mess" of this pandemic—and all of the sufferings that have come with
it—to the cross of Christ: asking for its swift end, of course, but also that
the redemption he won for us might be found and accepted in the midst of it.
May our veneration of the
cross today remind us that the work of our redemption truly is finished; and,
thus, give us hope to persevere through this trial and every trial still to
come.
Given at Saint Mary’s Cathedral: Lafayette, IN – April 10th,
2020
No comments:
Post a Comment